Our Purpose

Silver Wattle Quaker Centre has been established as a place to promote social and religious education, witness and service.

Silver Wattle provides opportunities to live the Quaker testimonies – Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Earthcare in the context of a Quaker community. We welcome seekers in all spiritual traditions and encourage guests to take opportunities for rest and healing in the beautiful environment of the Silver Wattle property.

What we do

Learning

Library. Our reference library has an extensive collection of historic and contemporary Quaker writings, as well as an eclectic selection of books from a range of faith and cultural traditions

Community living. Our visitors are welcome to participate in Silver Wattle's daily work routine. This might include learning new skills by accompanying those who work with land care, animals and food production, or assisting with food harvesting and preservation in the garden and kitchen.

Retreats

We offer space for:

self-managed reflection, silence and conversation in community

facilitated group-retreats of discussion, conversation and silence

seekers of solitude. Our simple caravan is set apart from (but is very much part of) the community

Healing

Silver Wattle offers visitors the opportunity for individual (re)connection with country and with self.

We invite you to slow down, take time and make time to watch wildlife and landscape; to eat good fresh food to fuel bushwalks on tracks and trails and the lakeside labyrinth; to write, paint, sew, sculpt; to restore, renew and refresh.

On the second Sunday of each month we hold a Meeting for Worship open to the public from 11 am to midday. Call us on 02 6238 0588 if you would like to join us.

A place for rest and contemplation

The vision for Silver Wattle Quaker Centre is to:

Demonstrate prayer, simplicity and gratitude before God

Embody Quaker practice in all its aspects and activities

Welcome the spiritual presence in all who come to Silver Wattle

Encounter willingly and deeply the spirituality of Australian First Nations’ peoples and their care for this land

Reflect a way of life that is spiritually, physically, environmentally and economically sustainable in Australia

True godliness don’t turn men out of the world,but enables them to live better in it,and excites their endeavours to mend it.

— William Penn, 1682

A Brief History of Silver Wattle

Silver Wattle was established as a sheep grazing property in the late 1800s. In 1995 it was sold, and a small conference centre established to provide outdoor activities and team-building exercises for community and corporate groups. The property then became the home of St Joseph House of Prayer, a Catholic community.

In 2009, Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (we're better known by our less formal names - Quakers or Friends) leased the property for a trial two years to offer courses and retreats. By mid-2010, it was clear to many Friends not only that such a centre was needed for Quakers and others, but there was also a strong leading that Silver Wattle was the right place.

A new company, Silver Wattle Quaker Centre Ltd., was formed to purchase the property and operate the centre and funds were raised by an appeal for donations and loans among Quakers. Silver Wattle came into our hands and under our care on 30 September 2011.